Categories
Background Checks Business Research Economy Human Resources Miscellany preemployment screening Staffing

Job Search Networks Spring Up From the Grass Roots

From New York to San Francisco, and many cities in between, job networks are spring up out or grass roots organizations.   According to an article in the New York Times, these groups off seminars as well as networking opportunities.    Some of these networking sessions lure as little as a couple dozen people while in other cases thousands of unemployed workers show up.    The networking sessions vary in structure, with some being a little more organized than others.

Whether these networking events are truly offering job opportunities or are merely mutual commiseration society, I’m sure, can vary from one to another.   Most of the time there are a lot of unemployed people meeting with other unemployed workers in hopes of finding job leads.   It’s like in some cases two desperate souls working a downtown bar in hopes of finding a millionaire.   Might happen.  But probably not.

But not matter, these sessions have to be beneficial.  If nothing else, you can socialize and meet some people, and actually pick up a lead or two.   Those networking groups that offer seminars,  can be of special benefit in providing insight into finding work.   Also, many of the persons attending these networking gatherings are on the mid-management and executive level.

But the article does warn about these sessions being misdirected.   The article warns about “group gripe” sessions, which can be harmful to the job candidates.   And then there is the factor, as one executive headhunter pointed out to me, that not everyone there was laid off due to the downsizing and the bad economy.   Sometimes the economy is just the excuse , the justification for a company to winnow out the dead wood in the work force.  In these times, it was pointed out,  employers are bending over backwards to retain their valued workers.   They may be cutting salaries or cutting the work week, but they will go to extremes to keep from laying them off.   Come the better times, these employees will be in demand, and will go a long way toward ramping up the business.

So for these potential employment candidates, background checks are always in order.   For most employers, background searches are  a normal part of their preemployment screening program.   But now, it is essential to check out applicants to have at least some idea what they have been doing with their involuntary leisure time.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.